


Perspectives

by mangocianamarch



Series: Le Livre de L'un par La Dame Marciana [2]
Category: The Hobbit (2012) RPF, The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Aquarium fic, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-01
Updated: 2013-05-01
Packaged: 2017-12-10 02:41:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/780834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mangocianamarch/pseuds/mangocianamarch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean once told Richard not to bring him to the aquarium on a date, lest the fish and the shows and the animals and the views make him forget he's on a date at all. Richard takes him anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perspectives

**Author's Note:**

> This one-shot is based on a text post going around Tumblr about an aquarium being a bad idea for a date place because the fish and the shows and the animals are bound to steal attention. Someone reblogged it and countered that maybe the whole point of choosing the aquarium is to see their date smile. It was so sappy and romantic and cheesy and beautiful, there was no way I wasn't going to make my favorite OTP go on an aquarium date.

Dean can't help balling his hands into fists on his lap. Normally, he doesn't object to being blindfolded by Richard, but not when he's been chucked into the front seat of a car, Richard driving like a maniac to Dean can only guess which level of hell.

"Relax," Richard says for what must be the fifteenth time since they had left Dean's rented house.

"Little hard to do when we're speeding and I can't see where we're going," Dean remarks.

"You said you trusted me," Richard reminds him, clearly hiding laughter.

"I know I did," Dean replies, nearly adding, "Doesn't mean it's true."

"We're almost there," Richard assures him.

Dean has tried to get Richard to tell him exactly where THERE is, but Richard has just shushed him everytime, telling him it's a surprise and stealing a kiss just to stop him from saying anything, and it's starting to get a little scary. Richard isn't a big fan of surprises himself, and Dean can't help but feel like this is retaliation for a couple of things.

But suddenly the car is slowing, Richard is backing it up, and then turning it off.

"Don't move," Richard says as Dean unbuckles his seatbelt.

"Riiiiiich," Dean protests, but Richard seems to be stepping out of the car now. His door slams shut, and the silence presses at Dean, and it feels like several eternities pass before his door opens, and Richard has his hand on his shoulder.

"This is not sexy, Rich," Dean tells him as Richard helps him out of the car.

"It will be in a bit," Richard promises, breath low against his ear.

"I smell the ocean," Dean notes, and dammit if that doesn't make him smile.

"Keep your eyes closed," Richard says as he begins to undo the blindfold, "Don't open until I tell you to."

Dean obeys, unable to keep his irritation away as a cold sea breeze blows past. The blindfold comes off, and Richard tells him to open his eyes slowly. What greets him makes him swear he's going to jump Richard's bones the first chance he gets.

"The new aquarium," he breathes, "I didn't know it was open yet."

"It opened about a week ago," Richard says as he gathers Dean's camera bag up from the trunk of the car, "I know how much you've missed the ocean and stuff, so I thought I'd bring you here. And I brought this for you too, coz I thought you might kill me without it."

He hands Dean's camera bag to him, and Dean can feel his face light up. He grabs a handful of Richard's shirt and pulls him close.

"Your perfection is offensive," he breathes, "I ought to show you a thing or two about knowing what's what, or some other unsexy shit like that."

Richard lets out a full-throated, deep laugh. "You are impossibly adorable," he returns, taking Dean's face in his hands and giving him a chaste kiss on the lips, "You can show me what's what later. Right now, we've got the whole day to ourselves, so let's spend it staring at fish, shall we?"

The second they enter the aquarium, Dean turns into a 10-year-old. He gets his camera out, making sure to keep the flash off, and starts snapping away, getting some fantastic shots.

He particularly likes it when he can get a lot of vibrant colors in the same frame. Or when a turtle swims right up to him, looking curious and yet disinterested. Or when a bull shark, with its small eyes and menacingly long teeth, heads straight for the camera. Or the blue tank full of pearl-white jellyfish, creating some sort of wild tentacle forest on the bottom of their keep. Or the dolphins and porpoises hamming it up for everyone in their shows. Or the seal that pops its head up out of its tank during its show to give him a gigantic smile when it sees Dean pointing a camera at him from the front row. Or when Richard gets picked for a small bird show and feeds a parrot that's perched on his shoulders (Dean's particularly fond of this one; Richard's smile is divine in the picture). Or when one of the biggest arapaimas he's ever seen cuts through the water in a tank just beside him. Or that silly sunfish that glides right into frame while he's taking a picture of something else. Or the...

It's difficult to pinpoint just one thing that he loves most. All Dean knows is that five and a half hours later, and his cheeks are hurting; he hasn't been able to stop smiling at all. But the sun is going down now, and they've retired to the shoreside restaurant inside the aquarium, sharing a salad and resting their tired feet. Dean is going through his photos, showing them to Richard excitedly.

"This one is my favorite," he says, "Oh no, wait, _this_ one. No, this one. Ugh, I can't pick! Did you get any good ones, Richard?"

"Yeah," Richard replies, a tiny smile in the corner of his lips, "I think they're all my favorites."

"Booo," Dean teases, "Let's see them then."

"Nah," Richard argues, "I like them, but I'm pretty sure they're crap compared to your shots."

"Bollocks," Dean remarks, "Come on, Armitage, hand them over."

With a reluctant sigh, Richard hands over his phone. Dean immediately starts rifling through it to get to the pictures. Typical organized Richard - he's already assigned them all to their own folder. The first handful are of the fishes and animals, but as Dean gets closer and closer, he starts to see a pattern.

"Rich," he says, brow furrowing slightly, "When you go to an aquarium, you're supposed to take pictures of the animals."

"Right," Richard agrees.

"And the only way you can get away with pictures of people is if they're with an animal," Dean continues.

"Yeah," Richard says.

"Richard," Dean enunciates, only sort of chastising him, "These aren't fish. Or animals. Or water."

"No, they aren't, are they?" Richard asks,  "Then again, I didn't come here for the fish. Or the animals. Or the water. I came here for your smile."

And indeed, that's what Richard has taken pictures of. Most of them are surreptitious, taken from the side or when Dean wasn't looking his way. But they're all of Dean. Dean smiling. Dean happy.

"You know I don't much care for big, deep bodies of water," Richard remarks, "so I chose something that I _do_ care for to capture on camera."

Dean is having a really, really, _reallyreallyreallyreally_ hard time fighting down a grin. "You, sir," he says, reaching the phone back to Richard, "are a gigantic sap."

"Only because I'm dating you," Richard replies.

"Shut up," Dean chuckles, but already he's leaning into Richard. Their lips meet in a sweet, gentle kiss against a sunset-orange backdrop of water and skies and sea breeze. It's all disgustingly cheesy, like something out of a chick flick or a postcard. Normally, Dean would balk at such a display, let alone at the thought of being part of that display, but it's _Richard_. It's poetry and romance and cloud-9's and all things lovely and _Richard_.

"Do me a favor," Dean says when the kiss breaks, Richard's hand still in his hair.

"Anything," Richard replies.

"Never change," Dean answers, "Whether or not what we've got lasts forever or just for another couple of months, whether we end up married or living together or hating each other, never fucking change, for anyone."

"I'm not perfect," says Richard.

"No, you're not," Dean confirms, "But you're you. And that's more than enough."

Yup. Completely cheesy. Utterly sickening. Downright sappy as fuck all.

It’s bloody perfect.

 

**_~ END. ~_ **


End file.
